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Graves of unusually tall individuals discovered in China

A burial ground dating back 5000 years has been discovered in Jiaojia village near Jinan City, Shandong, China. The site has been dubbed “giants graveyard” by the media.

Overview of the site (by Asia Wire)

Archaeologists have discovered a number of artefacts at the site from the Longshan Culture, renowned for its eggshell black pottery, from the late Neolithic period. This culture, occupied middle and lower Yellow River valley areas of northern China from about 3000 to 1900 BC. Judging from the remain of the individuals, they measured between 1.8 to 1.9 metres high, which seem over the average for people living 5000 years ago. Hight of the tallest individual found at the site was estimated by researchers to 1.9 metres but it was probably more during his lifetime. Today, men aged 18 living in the region have an average height of 1.75 metres with a national average in China being 1.72 metres. Finds from the graves themselves indicate that these people must have been high status individuals who had access to better food than the average person. So far ruins of 104 houses, 205 graves and 20 sacrificial pits present at the site of this Neolithic village have been excavated by archaeologists.

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